What can you do with a spare entry-level Android phone? Part 1: First impressions

Occasionally, local electronics stores here in Norway offer up entry level Android phones for ridiculously low prices. I’ve let those chance slip in the past, but when I got another chance to grab one today, I did. For 295 NOK- which is the price of about three Big Mac combo meals here in Norway- I ended up with an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Pocket plus S5301.

The S5301 is as entry level as it gets. It has a 240×320 pixel screen, an 850MHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 2 megapixel rear camera, 4GB of internal memory, an SD card slot, GPS, Android 4.0, and a few other standard specs like Bluetooth. The resolution of the 2.8-inch screen is definitely the most noticeably cheap part of it, as the rest of the specs are at least semi-decent. For the price, however, it’s hard to call it anything but a steal.

The reason why I bought one is simple: I want to play with it. I want to have a spare Android phone that I can do whatever I want to without risking an expensive device, and just having a second Android phone around in itself opens up for some interesting experimentation. I also wanted to see how viable the device is for someone who doesn’t have an smartphone at all, and I’m just outright curious what I could get for this little money.

I had barely even gotten it turned on before I went looking for a root method, and found one. With root available, I put Titanium Backup to work freezing most of the software that was on the phone, as Samsung’s bloatware tendencies certainly aren’t diminished on budget devices. I replaced the launcher, browser, and simply cleaned up the phone. There’s no custom ROM for this thing (yet), so this is basically the closest I can get to stock Android. Even so though, Touchwiz is very present, and that annoys me.

With all of that in order, I started seeing what the phone can actually do. I have to say that if this thing had a better screen, it would have just made it so much better, though the low resolution might also explain why the device runs fairly well on such low specs. It does hang for a couple of seconds every once in a while, but other than that, it’s managing quite well.

As for what I want to do with it, I have a ton of ideas. I’m currently testing how stable AutoVoice Continuous is on the thing, and so far it’s doing great. For those who don’t know, AutoVoice Continuous is the constantly listening mode for the AutoVoice Tasker plug-in, allowing you to custom create a voice assistant that is listening to you 24/7. You know, like what the Motorola Moto X has…just that AutoVoice was first…and runs on a device whose price you can count in cheeseburgers.

In all fairness, the Moto X’s real benefit is that it has a dedicated core for this feature, while other devices need to use a lot of power to keep it going. As such, I have an idea to make the S5301 a permanent part of my apartment, and create a magnetic charging system for it. The idea I have is to create a stand with magnets that snap onto magnets on the phone, and charges through that connection. It’s an idea I’ve played with before, but the dealbreaker has always been that it would be a major and noticeable modification to a portable device. With a small, cheap phone that doesn’t need to go anywhere, it doesn’t matter if I add some bulk to it.

If I get that or something similar set up, the hope is that AutoVoice Continuous will be able to run all the time on the S5301, eliminating the battery issue by always powering it. In theory, that will allow me to move a lot of voice commands for my home automation system off my primary phone (where I need to trigger voice control before I speak), and have a permanent, completely hands-free option instead. First, however, I need to find out how stable AV-C is on this thing.

I might also look into doing something in the realm of device-device communication with this phone. Thanks to AutoRemote I can make the S5301 talk to my primary phone, and set up the two to cooperate. I’m not sure exactly what to use that for yet, but the point is that if I can imagine it, I can very likely make it.

The potential here is huge, and with this device I never have to worry about breaking it or wasting an expensive device on minor tasks. I will report back once I’ve decided what I want to- and can- do with this thing.

About the Author

Andreas Ødegård was an associate editor at Pocketables. He's more interested in aftermarket (and user created) software and hardware than chasing the latest gadgets and tends to stick with his choice of device for a long time as a result of that. Currently that includes an iPad mini and a Samsung Galaxy S II.

jason

I really enjoy your tasker creations/tutorials. I am excited to hear how this one turns out so keep us posted!

TJ

Would be cool if we were given the option of stock UI or manufacture UI upon boot. And maybe they use some of the space for a restore of either?

Mike

Nice, but does it work with AC-power only having the battery removed? I’d fear for some *boom* if it’s constantly loaded for a longer period of time.

According to XE.com, 295NKR translates to 37.42€, I’d take it for that price, but unfortunately the cheapest price in german price comparison is 79€.

raqua

I use my old phone for something similar:
– wifi monitor – checks if some unauthorized device has connected to my home network and notifies me about it. Could be also enhanced to let you know, when you spouse arrived home if you wish to have that.

– power outage monitor – I went to vacation to find out that my flat was 4 days without electricity. I could have asked my parents to go there and get it running had I knew. Now I get email/sms if that happens and if I do not get it working soon enough, my parents get sms later as well.
– my delayed second alarm (I do not own tablet as you do)

Andreas Ødegård

Had completely forgotten about alarms! My tablet is an iPad, so I can’t set it up so its alarm is set automatically when I set the one on my phone. I can however do that with this, so I need to get that sorted.

Wes Stacey

I have an old Galaxy Tab 10.1 (the original Tab), that i repurposed.

I have a Tasker profile on my phone that goes out and gets the information form my smart thermostat that came with my alarm system. After A LOT of trial and error and not wanting to spend the money to setup a “proper” home automation system. I found if i went to the mobile site for my alarm system i could parse the HTML code and gather the data i needed.

Unfortunately the only issue was that the website is a third party site (alarm.com) so when you log into the site you aren’t actually logging into the device, so the website has to send commands to the device to actually update. The desktop site as well as the mobile apps do this automatically whenever you go to the thermostat page. The mobile site however doesn’t and just displays the information from the last update. so in order for the data to be accurate i need to open the app on my phone every so it updates, which sort of defeats the purpose.

I realized that i just needed something to open the app every so often to update it. It doesn’t NEED to be my phone. So i rooted my old tablet and have ti setup with d-pad actions to open the app and navigate to the thermostat every 15 minutes. Then i can keep things going it actually works great.

Now that i have a second device i could control with autoremote i am looking for other things that i can do with it.

Any suggestions?

Zak Lawson

I use my old EVO 4G as a tv/stereo. HDMI hooked up to old monitor, Netflix, HBO Go, Google Play Music, Tasker, and AutoRemote; running on the UberSonic ROM. For remote control, I wrote custom input tap shell command actions that can press all the relevant controls. Then I pipe the Now Playing metadata back to my regular phone where it shows up in my universal Now Playing widget, courtesy of the awesome Media Utilities app and Zooper widget. That widget shows song/movie metadata and cover art for my regular phone, XBMC, and my EVO stereo. I would like to simplify that with the new AutoInput app, but it isn’t compatible with my ROM yet.

Hey Andreas,
Nice post. I’m currently doing the same thing on my side, as earlier this year, my wife and I had a Motorola Defy and a Samsung Galaxy S2.
Turns out that my wife was very unhappy with the sluggish motoblur system performance, and asked me if I wouldn’t buy a new phone in the near future. I said “I’m interested in a Note II, but I’m no sure” and she said “Why don’t you buy it and I keep using your S2”.
After a personal financial review, we decided to execute this move, and her Defy was retired from its short ~2 years of operations.
Then I decided that the Defy would serve me as my secondary personal device. Installed a custom firmware and it’s been serving my most naughty desires since than.
Let’s see what you will do with your S5301 and see if I come up with some ideas too. :)
Thanks!

Richard

Hi,
I’ve been playing around with Tasker and a few plugins while learning a lot from this site. I’m also thinking of using my Kindle Fire HD 7 (rooted with cyanogenmod 10.2) as a personal home assistant and automation system. I would love to use Autovoice continuous and be able to communicate with it anytime from anywhere in the house. ‘Anywhere’ is the major problem because I can’t think of any device that could be in each room to make communication possible. Any ideas?